Troubletwisters

  Jack didn’t notice the initials. His eye had caught something even further up the lighthouse, something that had flashed brightly as the beam of light passed underneath.

  It was a small brass plate above the twelve-foot glass window of the lantern room, next to the narrow iron ladder.

  ‘It’s here!’ he shouted, pointing. The ladder was wet, and the rungs were thin and slippery, but he was up it in an instant. The brass plate was screwed into a wooden beam that was part of the window frame, but it was two feet from the ladder. Jack had to hang on with one hand and reach across.

  Once, the old plaque might have been identical to the one Jaide had below. It had the same words, but they were faded, and the brass itself was riddled with tiny black cracks, like veins.

  Jack leaned out and touched it, and the plate flaked away beneath his fingers, leaving only remnant corners around the silver screws.

  ‘Quick!’ he shouted. ‘Give me the replacement and a screwdriver!’

  Jaide came up halfway, gripping the ladder with all her strength. When she had to pass the plate and the screwdriver with her right hand, she looped her whole left arm through a rung and locked her elbow. Even so, her feet were lifted off, and the wind almost had her before she could get a grip with her other hand again.

  Heavy, thought Jaide. I’m heavy, heavy, heavy.

  She managed to get back down to the walkway and hold on there, the wind howling around her, encouraging her to let go. But even over the wind, she could hear a frenzied scrabbling and squeaking at the hatch in the lantern room as the mouse horde tried to get through.

  On the headland, the giant creature finally managed to get out of the sea. It half-crawled, half-flowed toward the lighthouse and, as it did so, it began to elongate. Its existing tentacles split into several thinner, longer ones. Jellyfish, seaweed, crabs, squid and hundreds of different types of fish dripped from the creature’s composite form as it oozed forward, and it left a glistening, flopping trail fifty feet wide.

  It took Jaide only a few seconds to recognise that its leading tentacles had reached the base of the lighthouse and were feeling their way upward.

  She was so intent on the squid-monster that the appearance of a woman’s face at the edge of the walkway came as an incredibly awful surprise. She was milky-eyed, and her face was bruised and battered, with dried blood caked under her nose and mouth. Rat heads now grew out of her shoulders, bursting through a cloak of cockroaches shielding her from the rain. But far, far worse than that were the spiders that supported her, hundreds of fat, hairy spiders that had encased her in a coat of webs, the webs they had used to carry her up the side of the lighthouse.

  +We have been looking for you,++ said Rennie. ++And now we have found you.++

  The woman grasped the rail, and the spiders peeled off her, swarming up the railing, trailing their webs behind them. The wind blew some away, but there were many, many more spiders to take their place. They quickly wove a rope that Rennie used to swing herself up and over the rail.

  +Now we have found you.++

  Rennie was shouting aloud, her impassioned cry echoed by rats and cockroaches and the towering sea creature, but the sound was a mere whisper compared to the mental scream of The Evil inside Jaide’s and Jack’s minds.

  +We will never let you go!++

  Jaide did let go, and let the wind take her – driving her body straight at Rennie like a missile, her clenched hands thrust out ahead of her.

  She struck Rennie in the chest and felt The Evil reach out from Rennie, but the contact was too fleeting. Rennie flipped backward over the railing in a shower of dislodged cockroaches and was gone.

  Jaide spun over, too, but she did a somersault in the air, a violent fishtail, and then a kind of strange thrashing butterfly swimming stroke that somehow delivered her back to the walkway, where she landed on spiders and did a screeching dance across to, and up, the ladder.

  ‘Rennie . . . she . . . uh . . . it is still there,’ said Jack, who was looking down through the diamond-shaped mesh of the steel walkway. Jack had instantly recognised her, even though she was now a hideous recombination of human, rat and insect. ‘Hanging on a web, twenty feet under. The spiders are going to help her, that squid thing is getting closer, and I can’t get the last stupid screw out!’

  Jack could see the huge tentacles reaching out toward them, and the main body of the creature pulling itself along behind. He could smell it, too, an incredibly powerful, rancid fish smell stronger than anything any fish market had ever managed, even on a hot day.

  ‘Let me try,’ said Jaide, tugging on his leg.

  Jack climbed down the ladder and Jaide shimmied up past him.

  ‘Hang on to my legs,’ she told him as she leaned over again and put all the strength of her shoulder, arm and hand into the screwdriver. It was very stiff, and for a long, horrible moment, she thought she, too, might not be strong enough. She gritted her teeth and strained until her fingers burned.

  Slowly, the last of the old silver screws began to turn.

  ‘Yes!’ Jaide shouted in triumph.

  But as the last screw teetered out and fell, the fading powers of the East Ward of Portland finally died.

  Now there was nothing in the east to stand between The Evil and the town.

  Jack and Jaide felt the ward go, and the sudden surge in The Evil’s power that came with it. Both of them almost fell off the ladder from the mental shock as they were struck with a thousand super-fast, flickering images of The Evil’s triumph. They saw that horrible milky-white glow spread across the eyes of everyone they’d met in town, from Rodeo Dave to the schoolteacher, Mr Carver. They saw the doors of Grandma X’s house bursting under the weight of rats and other vermin, and Ari and Kleo being ripped apart. They saw the mice pouring into the lantern room of the lighthouse. They saw themselves holding out welcoming arms to the tentacle of the giant squid-thing —

  ‘No!’ screamed the twins together.

  The vision disappeared, blown away by their scream.

  The Evil had not triumphed – not yet.

  ‘Give me the plate!’ shouted Jaide. ‘Keep holding my legs!’

  Jack handed her the leather case that held the plate and screws, then wrapped his arms around his sister’s legs and the ladder, his hands in a monkey grip on the far side. Every time the bright light of the lamp swept over him, he felt his strength waver. Only in the dark did he feel strong.

  Help me, he thought to the night. But it was as if there was a barrier now between him and his Gift. A thick, threatening barrier, which had to be a manifestation of The Evil’s growing power. Help me!

  +There is no help for you here,++ said The Evil’s voice out of the storm. ++Except from us.++

  ‘Why would you help us?’ said Jack.

  +We will help you because only we do not want you to die. Where is the witch when you need her? Where are the Wardens? They do not care as we care. They are not your true family.++

  Jack shook his head. He didn’t want to believe the voice, but his determination was flagging. Everything it said was true. Grandma X hadn’t helped him when he was in the tunnels – all she had done was send a storm, which might have drowned him had he not got himself out. She hadn’t helped Jaide when the birds had attacked her. And she wasn’t helping now, when all of Portland was in danger. Even the cats were at best reluctant allies. They didn’t take sides, Ari said, which meant they weren’t on Jack and Jaide’s. No one was.

  Furthermore, Jack thought, everything he knew about The Evil came through Jaide, the cats, or Grandma X. No one had given it the chance to speak for itself.

  ‘What are you, really?’ Jack asked The Evil. ‘And what do you really want?’

  +Open your mind to us, Jackaran Kresimir Shield. Open your mind and find out!++

  ‘Can’t you just tell me?’
>
  +No words can contain us.++

  ‘What?’ said Jaide from the top of the ladder. She could hear Jack talking but couldn’t make out the words over the storm. She was leaning out into space, held only by her brother’s strength. She had the replacement plate in one hand, the screwdriver and the first screw in the other, and the bag in her teeth.

  Jack didn’t answer her. Jaide brushed salty spray out of her eyes and pressed the plate into place against the beam. The brass shone in defiance of the storm and The Evil. Jaide slotted the first screw into the hole made by its predecessor. It turned straightly and smoothly, as though it wanted to go in. She fitted the screwdriver on, and quickly tightened the screw.

  +Tell her to stop,++ the voice told Jack.

  ‘Why?’ he asked it. ‘What difference does it make if she does?’

  +All the difference in your world. Accept our embrace and know an end to fear and grief.++

  ‘And happiness and love as well!’

  +All emotions are one. When you join us, you will understand.++

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Jack. The Evil looked horrible, but so did Brussels sprouts, and they were supposed to be good for you. Could Grandma X and the Wardens really have it the wrong way around?

  +The Wardens keep your father from you. Tell your sister to stop, or you will never be allowed to see him again.++

  Jack stared out into the night, knowing that The Evil must have a tiny foothold on his brain to be able to read that small, creeping doubt. Why hadn’t his father come with them to Portland? Why had he abandoned them the day their house exploded?

  ‘Got it!’ cried Jaide, sliding her finger into the leather case and pulling out another screw. She put that in place, turned it once with her finger, and —

  A tentacle smashed down ten feet away, wrapped itself around the railing, and pulled. Steel shrieked in protest, and the tentacle tore a whole section of the walkway off the side of the lighthouse.

  At the same time, the bloodied, white-eyed Rennie struggled up the other side, webs dangling from her in all directions like parachute shrouds.

  +Tell her to stop!++ The mouths of the rats on her shoulders moved in unison with her words. ++Tell her to stop, Jackaran Kresimir Shield, or we will stop her for you!++

  Jack stared, frozen, as the tentacle struck again. This time it did not tear away the walkway, but came questing forward. Another tentacle followed, reaching about like a blind snake seeking its prey.

  Jaide started on the third screw, frantically pushing it into place with cold-chilled fingers and leaning far out in her efforts to do so. Were she to drop the screw, it would almost certainly be lost. There was no walkway underneath them now, and nothing but The Evil to catch anything – or anyone – that fell.

  ‘Hold me properly!’ she called to Jack. His grip shifted as though he was growing tired. She wasn’t worried about falling, but being blown away by the gale would be bad enough. There was no time left now for mistakes.

  Jack stared back at Rennie as she tried to climb over the rail. The webs that had helped her before were a hindrance now, all tangled and confused. Cockroaches squished under her fingers, making her grip treacherous. Jack thought she might be trapped there, but that hope was dashed as a tentacle came toward her, wound itself around her chest, lifted her out of the tangle, and deposited her on the desperately leaned-over walkway near the ladder and the twins. With staring white eyes, Rennie looked up at Jaide as she screwed in the third screw, oblivious to Jack’s struggle below.

  ‘Leave her alone,’ Jack said. ‘It’s me you want, not her.’

  +Tell her to stop.++

  ‘But she doesn’t understand —’

  +Tell her to stop.++

  ‘Wait —’

  +We have waited long enough. She must stop!++

  Rennie started to climb toward the twins, her slimy fingers groping through the diamond mesh, her white eyes fixed on Jaide as the girl pushed in the fourth and final screw.

  A sigh of relief had just begun to form in Jack’s throat when a tentacle suddenly whipped up over his head.

  It hung in the air for a second, then the very tip curled around and flicked Jaide away from the plate, just like someone whisking away a fly. She fell on Jack, and both of them ended in a tangle, hanging off the rung of the ladder with only a six-foot length of bent and slanting walkway between them and the long fall to certain death.

  A length of walkway that had Rennie on the other end.

  Jaide looked at Jack in despair. The screwdriver was gone, dropped as she scrambled for a hold on the ladder.

  Both twins looked up and saw the fourth, final screw teetering where Jaide had put it in and done a half turn with her fingers.

  The tentacle came back again, brushing over them as it smashed blindly at the lighthouse. The whole structure shook as the tentacle hit, and Jaide saw the last screw fall, like a single silver teardrop, to be lost forever. They had no way now of finishing what they had started.

  The East Ward could not be replaced. ‘No,’ sobbed Jaide. ‘No . . .’

  +Yessss!++ cried The Evil, entirely in their minds.

  Rennie’s voice was silenced by cloying webs. ++It is pointless to resist. And now you will join us, both of you.++

  ‘No!’ shouted Jack. He let go with one hand and held out his palm toward Rennie. ‘It’s me you want. Spare her.’

  ‘Jack?!’

  ‘I’ll go with you.’ Jack was almost babbling, reaching out desperately to Rennie, who continued her slow climb toward them. ‘I’ll go with you – just let Jaide go!’

  The Evil laughed. They had never heard it laugh before, and the sound was more horrible than anything they had ever imagined. It came from the throat of every animal and insect surrounding the lighthouse. It came from Rennie. It came from the storm itself, thundering and rumbling.

  +It is too late, Jackaran Kresimir Shield, much too late, to bargain with us!++

  The twins felt all the power of The Evil gather around them and flow into Rennie. She would be the agent of their assimilation. The Evil would flow into them through her hands.

  ‘So good, so good to have my children back,’ mumbled Rennie in her normal voice, though the white never left her eyes. Somehow that was even more horrible than hearing The Evil speak through her.

  Still mumbling, Rennie dragged herself another foot up the broken walkway, her powerful fingers gripping the mesh as hand over hand she edged closer and closer. The rats growing from her shoulders squeaked in happy anticipation and the cockroaches rustled in applause.

  Jaide averted her eyes. She couldn’t look at Rennie as she approached. The lighthouse beam swept over them, and she saw her parents’ graffiti just inches away from where they clung to the bottom of the ladder.

  SAH ♥ HJS

  Inspiration nearly blinded her, just for a moment. She knew what they had to do – if there were only time left to do it!

  ‘Jack,’ she said, ‘give me your hand!’

  He didn’t hear her. His whole attention was on Rennie’s slow but inexorable climb toward them. He was transfixed by the horror of what was going to happen. He could still hear The Evil laughing. It seemed to fill up his whole world.

  ‘Jack! Your hand!’

  He snapped out of his daze. ‘What?’

  ‘“Something read”, the rhyme goes,’ Jaide was saying. ‘Something read. Maybe it doesn’t have to be that plaque. Maybe it doesn’t even have to be words. Just letters might do if we make it happen – look!’

  He looked where she was pointing and saw the graffiti. ‘But we don’t know how to make it into a ward.’

  ‘How do we know we can’t? We’re troubletwisters! A week ago we didn’t know we could fly or shadow-walk. Who knows what we can do?’

  Jack grinned suddenly, and it was
like the clouds parting.

  +Join us!++ screamed The Evil as one of Rennie’s clawing hands reached for Jack’s leg. Behind her, all around the lighthouse, thousands of white eyes stared out of the dark. ++Join us at last!++

  In reply, Jack and Jaide entwined their hands together and pressed hard against their parents’ graffiti.

  As their palms touched the stone, a terrible scream exploded in their minds, to be repeated a split second later by every throat for miles.

  +Wait!++ shrieked The Evil. ++Do not — ++

  ‘“Susan Anne Hungerford loves Hector Jamieson Shield”,’ whispered the twins together. ‘Be the East Ward.’

  Silver light streamed through the carved initials, like molten metal following a mould. They felt their Gifts drawn to the light. Jack’s sense of shadow and darkness drained away from him, and his vision dimmed, so that he could only see by the lighthouse’s sweeping beam. Jaide felt the iciness of the wind, but nothing more, and no longer needed heavy thoughts to stay on the ladder.

  But they didn’t mind this ebbing of their Gifts. They knew instinctively that it was only temporary, part of the creation of a new ward and the containment of The Evil.

  They could feel The Evil going, retreating back whence it came. The huge squid-thing was breaking apart, leaving tons of flopping marine creatures piled high from lighthouse to sea. Masses of mice were fleeing in all directions, their running columns crisscrossing with those of spiders and cockroaches, fierce battles happening at every collision.

  ‘What have you done?’ said Rennie sadly in something approaching her ordinary voice, although a hint of The Evil’s power remained. ‘Why won’t you join me?’